Mario over Sonic

I first played Sonic the Hedgehog on a Sega Genesis at a friend's house about 25 years ago and even then I wasn't really fond of it. My friend would vent the merit of the game and the reasons why the blue creature game was superior to my Italian plumber game but I just couldn't get into the game then and I haven't been able to get in any Sonic games since.

What was kind of cool with Sonic the Hedgehog was the speed at which the creature was able to run but that is also its main problem. I had a very difficult time figuring out what was happening and how to properly react to it. At high speed, the colors kind of blended together and made everything look the same. The point of the game seemed to have been to go through the same level, multiple times, in order to find the best paths and know where each enemies were. My friend, who had played the game many time, could breeze through each level with ease.

Mario games were more approachable, to me, and the color palette made it easier on the eyes as well.

What's funny to me today is that even those that loved the Sonic of old will admit that the blue hero has had a lot of problems over the years compared to Mario. Only a handful of Sonic games seemed to have captured the spirit of the original in the last 25 years. Most Mario games, on the other hand, have been mostly hits. Without looking online "Mario is Missing", on the Super Nintendo, is the only Mario game I didn't enjoy and the only one I can think of that wasn't a hit.